The invention relates to a radiation detection method using a line scanner, from a reconnaissance plane, by means of similar receiving elements arranged in series, which receive the radiation of the object of interest and the scene surrounding the same via objectives arranged optically in front of the receiving elements and which convert the same to electrical signals opto-electronically. The invention also relates to an apparatus for carrying out the method.
A method and apparatus of this type is known for instance from German Pat. No. 1,623,425. It discloses a so called infrared line scan system in which the individual receiving elements are successively interrogated by only one serial arrangement. This method is primarily suitable for targets at rest. For vehicles, however, the time passing between the point of observation and the firing of a weapon, on the one hand, and the time of flight of the shell, on the other hand, can only be taken into consideration approximately, by relatively inexact allowances.
The textbook "Korrelationstechink" by Wolfgang Wehrmann, et al, Volume 14, second edition, Expert Verlag, pages 159-160, teaches a method of the deriving from the surface or temperature structure of incandescent rolled stock two signals of stochastic nature and from the cross correlation function the time displacement of the two signals with respect to each other, thus obtaining a measure of the speed.
It is an object of the present invention to improve the method of the above mentioned type so that the observation of even a moving object yields exact information about the amount of the speed and direction of movement.